Whitepapers

3 Best Practices for Modern Automotive Retailing Make Customer Outreach Before They Start Shopping The first step toward success in modern auto retailing starts with your first customer touchpoint: Delivering the right message, at the right time, to the highest quality prospects – before they begin shopping around. Advanced technology tools utilize both data from your CRM and DMS, as well as demographic, historical and financial data from third-party data partners, to identify which prospects are likely going to begin shopping soon. These factors can include changes in a person's career, purchasing a new home, recently having a baby and more. Using these advanced tools, dealers can intelligently engage with potential buyers, meeting them where they are in their life with active messaging, rather than hoping that same person eventually discovers the dealership on their own. Deliver Buying Experiences Your Customers Want Buyers are spending more time shopping online than ever before for seemingly everything (including vehicles), fundamentally changing consumer expectations when it comes to their buying experience. Instead of hoping this trend will reverse itself, forward-thinking dealerships are finding new ways to deliver the buying experiences their customers expect. Effectively and efficiently bringing the dealership experience online requires your entire dealership to be connected and communicating. This starts with setting clear expectations about the type of customer experience your team needs to deliver – and getting the needed buy-in and participation from every department, including sales, F&I and service. While some dealerships are still clinging on to the "old ways" of doing business, the past year has proven the critical importance of finding new ways to reach and interact with audiences. As a result, research from IHS Markit finds 80% of dealers expect a future change in the way business is done, away from the traditional model. The future is here, and proactive dealers are focused on delivering a modern experience across all sales channels – regardless if a customer is shopping online or in-person. While processes will change dealership-to-dealership, building a modern automotive retailing strategy requires: • Reaching customers before they start to shop • Delivering an experience that customers want • Focusing on exceptional customer service NEARLY 80% OF CONSUMERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO DO BUSINESS WITH A COMPANY THAT OFFERS PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCES. ANA/DMA Response Rate Report, 2018

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